Isn't the NOW all we have? All of our yesterdays just got us here. Not to be regretted or forgotten. All of our tomorrows are in our Higher Powers Hands. After turning our Will and our Life's over to His care.

If I live Today, the way I believe He would have me behave. Doing what I ought to do because I want to do it. I should have no regret, remorse or fears of tomorrow. If I do I must promptly admit it and make amends.

May I always see the beauty, peace, and tranquility. Learn and grow from the challenges, and share what I have been granted, as we Trudge this Road of Happy Destiny

Both You and the New Man must walk day by day in the path of Spiritual Progress

pg.99

Let the alcoholic continue his program day by day

In the "Twelve Concepts", p. 40, 'One day at a time', (or 'living in the now') is described as a 'valuable principle' which 'refers to our mental and emotional lives'. We must stay in the day emotionally and 'not foolishly repine over the past nor wishfully daydream about the future'. Works for me!

ezdzit247 wrote:In the "Twelve Concepts", p. 40, 'One day at a time', (or 'living in the now') is described as a 'valuable principle' which 'refers to our mental and emotional lives'. We must stay in the day emotionally and 'not foolishly repine over the past nor wishfully daydream about the future'. Works for me!

I was out running this morning listening to an 80s mix of music (I'm stuck in the 80s music wise) and that song "Woooooo hooooo wooo hoo hoo Don't Worry, Be Happy..." came on and a thought struck me.

I can't think myself fit. I can't think myself strong. What I do is that I go running and I go to the gym and I lift heavy. And if by magic fitness and strength just happens. If I were religious, I guess I could say 'God makes it happen'.

I just take the actions - one day at a time (one run at a time or one gym session at a time) - and fitness happens.

I think the fundamental misunderstanding with regards spiritual benefits - like peace of mind or 'loving ourselves - is that we sometimes think of these as ACTIONS in themselves. I don't think they are; they're a RESULT of things we do (a day at a time).

Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving. It doesn't matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again, come, come.” Rumi (No sniggering from the sex addicts)

In the "Twelve Concepts", p. 40, 'One day at a time', (or 'living in the now') is described as a 'valuable principle' which 'refers to our mental and emotional lives'. We must stay in the day emotionally and 'not foolishly repine over the past nor wishfully daydream about the future'. Works for me!

The Big Book carries the same message in various sections, we lose our fear of the past and the future, we are reborn, we don't regret the past nor wish to close the door on it etc etc. And some of us have been continually trying to point this out, every time someone pushes the one day at a time idea as meaning we put off drinking one day at a time, now the chief among those seems to have got the message, God is great indeed.

PS. The passage in the concepts says only that we are constantly telling ourselves “One Day at a Time,” and it means what is written in the quote above, we stay in the day emotionally. The part in parenthesis saying it means the same as 'living in the now,' does not appear, I expect it was not done to mislead anyone however.

"Good morning, this is your Higher Power speaking. I will not be needing your help today."

Again the title of the topic was "Sober Since I woke Up This Morning". Today for me sobriety is a by product. Its given, As long as I grow spiritually. Thats what we are trying to say here. All these back and forth is Living a day at time. I think we all agree to that concept.

Show him, from your own experience, how the peculiar mental condition surrounding that first drink prevents normal functioning of the will power (Alcoholics Anonymous, Page 92)

Tosh wrote:....I can't think myself fit. I can't think myself strong. What I do is that I go running and I go to the gym and I lift heavy. And if by magic fitness and strength just happens. If I were religious, I guess I could say 'God makes it happen'.

I just take the actions - one day at a time (one run at a time or one gym session at a time) - and fitness happens.

Excellant analogy.

I'm not religious so I can say Karma, the natural laws of the universe, makes it happen....

Tosh wrote:....I think the fundamental misunderstanding with regards spiritual benefits - like peace of mind or 'loving ourselves - is that we sometimes think of these as ACTIONS in themselves. I don't think they are; they're a RESULT of things we do (a day at a time).

Precisely.

"The miracle happens when we get sober. The magic happens when we APPLY the principles in all our affairs"....one day at a time.

When my son was a toddler it was obvious he had a very high IQ and I wanted to enroll him in a Montessori pre-school but the annual tuition was more than my annual income. Couldn't afford it so I did the next best thing. Read Maria Montessori's books--brilliant woman--way ahead of her time--and used her techniques for my son. I've often thought the "toys" she designed for children were all interactive in the same way AA's spiritual kit of "tools" are also interactive for "God's kids". One of the "toys" Montessori designed teaches kids how to hold a pen/pencil for writing things but kids have no awareness that's what they're learning when they play with this toy. The result of letting kids play with this particular toy for several months is that when they are then given an opportunity to play with crayons, the kids "intuitively" know how to hold and use the crayons for drawing familiar shapes in their environment--like letters of the alphabet decorating the walls of their playroom. My ESH is the same kind of thing happened for me in my sobriety journey when I practiced using AA's kit of spiritual "tools", one day at a time, to the best of my ability. I had no awareness of everything I was learning from the "tools" I was using until further down the road when I first experienced a moment in which I "intuitively" knew how to handle a situation which used to baffle me. It felt like "magic" to me. Still does.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yes. According to our best science AND everything written in ancient wisdom texts, NOW is not only all we have, NOW is reality. Every other concept of time is a mental construct. There is no such thing as "yesterday" or "tomorrow". There is only NOW.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson